A Special Request Menu Item: "Pasties"
A menu from the USNS Bowditch T-AGS-21 dated 1 June 1973. I've always said the MSC ships were great feeders with so many choices for each meal. What is significant about this one is that it has Pasties on it for one of the Dinner selections.
This is local dish, (meat, potato, onion, carrots, rutabaga pie wrapped in a crust.) from my home town in the Copper Country of Upper Michigan. The original dish came with the Cornish miners from Cornwall, UK when they came to Northern Michigan to mine copper. It was a complete meal in a crust that you can hold in your hand. The miner would heat his pasty in his lunch pail with a "carbide lantern" to get a hot meal.
I found pasties at the Grapes Hotel in Southampton, UK. (shipped in from Cornwall) and would have them save a few for me. My CO at the time, (LCDR James E. Paquin) and the Master of the Bowditch (Capt. Paul Sinski) tried them out and we convinced the Chief Steward, E. Hoban to have them on his menu. I have photos of the first trial run of Bowditch pasties too.
